Taking off his turban, they said, is this man a Jew?
'Cause they're working for the clampdown
They put up a poster saying we earn more than you!
When we're working for the clampdown
We will teach our twisted speech
To the young believers
We will train our blue-eyed men
To be young believers

The judge said five to ten-but I say double that again
I'm not working for the clampdown
No man born with a living soul
Can be working for the clampdown
Kick over the wall 'cause government's to fall
How can you refuse it?
Let fury have the hour, anger can be power
D'you know that you can use it?

The voices in your head are calling
Stop wasting your time, there's nothing coming
Only a fool would think someone could save you
The men at the factory are old and cunning
You don't owe nothing, so boy get runnin'
It's the best years of your life they want to steal

You grow up and you calm down
You're working for the clampdown
You start wearing the blue and brown
You're working for the clampdown
So you got someone to boss around
It makes you feel big now
You drift until you brutalize
Make your first kill now

In these days of evil Presidentes
Working for the clampdown
But lately one or two has fully paid their due
For working for the clampdown
Ha! Gitalong! Gitalong! (working for the clampdown)
Ha! Gitalong! Gitalong! (working for the clampdown)

Yeah I'm working in Harrisburg
Working hard in Petersburg (working for the clampdown, working for the clampdown)
Ha! Gitalong! Gitalong!
Beggin' to be melted down

General CommentThough there are certainly allusions being made to Marxist-leninist styles of mass oppression this song to me is about the indoctrination of youth into general systems of power... whether they be national governments or work and consume business cultures.

So often we see those that wear suits and think of them as having some kind of extra legitimacy for their success but it's a self-depraving lie. There's nothing incredibly wrong with a business lifestyle but there's equally nothing wrong with a free spirited one, especially when you're younger. So live and enjoy things.

General Commenti love this song... as a business major, it's something that i've always kept in my head... that i'll never turn into one of them... i absolutely love this line "No man born with a living soul
Can be working for the clampdown"... and yet i've seen the effect money has on people who are generally good and the destruction it causes... don't be a corporate slave!

General Commentrage against the machine did an absolutely terrible version of this song that i found on the net one time.
yeah i wear blue for my clampdown job, im quitting soon though, it is true, you get treated badly working for big companies.
oh and the strokes are shit alanna07.

General CommentI have a different view- starting with the song's title, which was used throughout the second half of the 20th century as moscow clamped down on expressions of dissent and individual freedom in eastern european states.

I think that Clampdown is about the socialist worker-style communist groups that were relatively popular in Britain at the time. I agree with everyone that it's one of the Clash's best songs, but I think a couple of the lyrics are wrong above, and that the reading I suggest is the most coherent and consistent.

"Cover the wall, cause governments can fall- how can you refuse it" I reckon this is about putting up communist posters, and the allure of socialist revolution to young people.

"Evil Presidentes working for the clampdown"- it's pretty clear that refers to dictators- Castro was always presidente. The reference to "paying their dues" is also a communist party/trade union reference.

If you look at the song with this interpretation, the rest makes sense too. The Clash were social commentators, whose main message was one of personal and class emancipation. But they were too intelligent and iconoclastic to be moscow-line communists. This song is a rejection of the cult-like communist groups that still exist in much of the western world, and the "best years of your life" these groups too often steal from idealistic young activists.

I can't see any clear references in that song that would specifically address left-wing regimes .. moscow, cuban or otherwise. So i would assume the song is to be interpreted in a broader sense and probably dealing with situation in the UK or western countries in general.